flashing graphics card

[Shane]

Hi,

i see alot of people that have flashed their GFX cards to something better.

1)how do they flash their cards to make them run at higher speeds?

2)Can it be done with a radeon 9600 pro to a Radeon 9600 XT
because look at the speed differance here....
http://www.gpureview.com/show_cards.php?card1=75&card2=82

3)Is is safe and can it be reversed?

 

[hermeslyre]

I did a quick Google search and I don't think that certain card is flashable\unlockable.

And just to add that it isn't always safe to best of my knowledge.. It doesn't always work.

 

[TheMajor]

Almost any card is flashable. It doesn't mean there is a custom BIOS with custom clock speeds available. You can use RivaTuner.

 

[hermeslyre]

Almost any card is flashable. It doesn't mean there is a custom BIOS with custom clock speeds available. You can use RivaTuner.

Really? I didn't know that. The alternate text color really convinced me.

Really though, How does this work? Do you flash the card with the BIOS of a card in it's family? i.e. 7600gs to 7600gt/R530 to R530? And how does this improve performance? does it simply reset the Clocks, or is it deeper than that?

Thanks

 

[Schonza]

Really? I didn't know that. The alternate text color really convinced me.

Really though, How does this work? Do you flash the card with the BIOS of a card in it's family? i.e. 7600gs to 7600gt/R530 to R530? And how does this improve performance? does it simply reset the Clocks, or is it deeper than that?

Thanks

It depends on the pipelines of the card, some cards have the pipelines disabled through it's BIOS, where some have pipelines have been lasercut, like with the 7600GS it's pipelines are lasercut compared to the 7600GT. So flashing a card like that wouldn't give a gain.

I'm not sure about you're card, you might need to do a little bit of reserach before doing it, because if it's done wrongly, it may screw your card up completely.

 

[lovely?]

yeah my card is lasercut as well. many of the newer ATI cards are not flashable

 

[Kornowski]

I wouldn't try flashing it mate, it may go wrong and then you wouldn't have a GPU. You don't want to have to buy a new one, especially if you're planning on gettig a new build some time.

I don't really think you'd see a huge performance gain either, maybe 5 - 10 FPS...

 

[TheMajor]

If the card doesn't work anymore, you can flash the original BIOS if you have a PCI card that you can use to boot the computer.

 

[Shane]

I wouldn't try flashing it mate, it may go wrong and then you wouldn't have a GPU. You don't want to have to buy a new one, especially if you're planning on gettig a new build some time.

I don't really think you'd see a huge performance gain either, maybe 5 - 10 FPS...

hmm i suppose your right...i have actuly overclocked the graphics card before but not by much...just a few mhz here and there lol.
because i cant monitor the temps whatsoever of my 9600

i was just trying to squeeze that little extra performance out of it if it was possible you know

 

[Kornowski]

Yeah, I'd wait till you build your new PC mate

It's up to you though, don't let me put you off

Yeah, I know what you mean!